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T O P I C R E V I E W

LCDR Scott Schneeweis

Though it may be tough to discern from the images, buried within the carcus of this lower Corporal Missile propulsion section recovered from White Sands Missile Range is one of the Jet Propulsion Laboratories first production regeneratively cooled thrust chambers developed from their study of the V2 Rocket. This weekend will start working to extricate the thrust chamber – it is significant also because this early JPL work was the progenitor for most of the Rocket and Missile technology we see today (including Jupiter and Saturn). More pictures to follow for those interested as the work progresses:

Scott it looks like the cooling tubes run vertically in the thrust chamber - was this some early design? Everything I've seen except for this has them running circumferentially around the chamber.

And is your Shop Vac rated for hydrazine :-)

LCDR Scott Schneeweis

Axial flow of coolant through the thrust chamber walls was a trademark of this engine design (some of the earlier non-production engines as well as many "modern" regeneratively cooled engines do employ the helical channels that you may be more familiar with). There are other examples of axial cooled engines - the X-15's XLR-99 a better known one.

These engines used even nastier stuff then straight stick hydrazine for propellant (the oxidizer was fuming nitric acid) in combination with a aniline-furfuryl alcohol-hydrazine mixture.

freshspot

Wow. Scott, you seem to outdo yourself with each new artifact. Thanks for sharing.

LCDR Scott Schneeweis

Yes there really is a thrust chamber buried within - results so far after a long night:

LCDR Scott Schneeweis

Here is the fully extracted thrust chamber...I will ultimately be making this rocket engine available for sale or trade domestically: